


Laser Tag Along If You Want But Try To Keep Up

by rowanthestrange_yugihell



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Gen, Laser Tag, The only tag I need is the
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-13
Updated: 2017-03-13
Packaged: 2018-10-04 08:08:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10272086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rowanthestrange_yugihell/pseuds/rowanthestrange_yugihell
Summary: A game of Laser Tag in which Tristan needs first aid, Yugi is a cowboy and Kaiba still doesn’t know who Bakura is.





	

* * *

  


This was a- well not a complete disaster, they’ve had complete disasters and this wasn’t it. But it’s up there though.

Tristan drinks the remains of his cola so it’s just ice at the bottom and gingerly rolls up the leg of his jeans.

He tries to pinpoint where exactly it all went wrong and (as he tracks further and further back through his memories) decides it was probably at the point where Joey said,

“Hey, anyone up for Laser Tag?”

  


* * *

  


Yugi calls Atem, Atem calls Kaiba (“Just. Walk. Upstairs.”) and Kaiba messages Mokuba - who turns out to be in a meeting until 5:30pm.

The place they end up at is called Space Wars - its sign written in a very recognisable font. It is exactly the type of Borderline Copyright Infringement that gets Kaiba’s back up. He briefly considers whether this location was chosen to throw him off his game, before deciding that the Mutt probably isn’t that smart.

Kaiba makes a remark about dogs chasing lasers; Joey tells him that’s cats, and they have a few minutes of argument that ends with them all watching videos of puppies on Kaiba’s phone until they’re called in.

Yugi and Atem are both fairly swamped in their respective vests, and considering Atem’s wearing enough gold to say “Mighty, Powerful And Sexy Pharaoh” as well as “Please Mug Me And Leave Me To Die In A Ditch”, the weight’s got to be a bit hampering.

Kaiba - noting he’s perfectly comfortable in his own at a broad shouldered 180cm plus, makes a remark about the poor sizing of the vests (something about ‘target audiences’, ‘market research’ and ‘basic common sense’), the old, cumbersome and inaccessible technology and what he would do with it, and as they’re hurried out of a door, drops hints that he might buy out the business once he gets home.

  


* * *

  


Kaiba Land doesn’t have Laser Tag. Why don’t they have Laser Tag? It’s thematically fitting, you could split into Dragons and Magicians, variable courses with optimisation for different patron’s requirements... Kaiba’s mind starts to race as he simultaneously maps out the area and finds a good spot to start from. 

He decides this will be a good chance for some personal experience - he doesn’t imagine that even with his level of game-playing expertise, he’ll be able to carry his team to victory when the other members are; a Pharaoh who as far as he knows has never so much as played Zombie Crisis 3 in an arcade; and a guy so pale he positively glows under the blacklight.

He looks around. 

Then again…

Ghost Guy has vanished quite completely.

  


* * *

  


Joey, Tristan and Yugi don’t even need to talk. They check their lasers for accuracy on the wall (Yugi reminds himself to aim slightly to the left), and split up. Joey and Tristan find a corridor to start from, standing at each other’s backs and ready to do the legwork, and Yugi a neat little ‘Assassination Alcove’ with enough cover to easily slip in and out of. Sometimes being short really pays off. 

  


* * *

  


1 5 : 2 5 p m 

  


Atem is the first one hit. He’s not even surprised (well, not surprised at getting hit - though he does embarrassingly jump at the noise), and scuttles off into a corner. 

He doesn’t want to shoot at his friends, his neck aches, he doesn’t like running around, he can’t see a thing and this clearly isn’t an actual game and he’s been tricked into doing a Sport, and he can’t do Sport.

Atem starts looking for a place to sit out the next quarter of an hour and finds a little niche in the wall. He climbs up the tyres and pokes his head in. 

It’s not empty.

Yugi looks at him impassively. Atem, aware that he looks and sounds fairly desperate says,

“Please don’t shoot me.”

Yugi shoots him.

  


* * *

  


1 5 : 3 0 p m 

  


Joey and Tristan are playing a game of ‘Hunt The Kaiba’. It’s going surprisingly well. 

For a guy who’s supposed to be so smart, Kaiba sure knows how to back himself into a corner.

Every so often one of them gets distracted by spiky hair in their peripheral vision which allows Kaiba to slip past them. In the dark it’s not easy to tell Atem and Yugi apart, so they leave Yugi to deal with him on his own for the most part.

Kaiba’s playing an offensive game. They guess he picked up on the fact that you gain more points for damaging than you lose for being shot. Either that or he’s finally getting to live the dream of shooting them all and doesn’t want to waste it - with Kaiba who knows?

“Left, Left!” Tristan shouts to Joey as they meet up in a corridor - Kaiba firing back surprisingly accurately and disabling Tristan’s gun for a few seconds - Joey doing the same to Kaiba’s in return as they reach the corner.

Then suddenly they’re being shot at repeatedly from the front _and_ back in an invisible ambush, and have to retreat fast as the shots keep firing - hiding around a corner and breathing hard.

In the distance they see a short, pointy-haired person scramble clumsily over a box while being pursued by-

  


* * *

  


1 5 : 3 3 p m 

  


“A mirror.” Kaiba says, mildly impressed as Ghost Guy silently taps it with one finger.

“There are eight of them all over the course. The sensors on the armour have a scoring delay if they’re shot twice in the same location to discourage rapid firing and corner trapping. But if you alternate front and back, it doesn’t activate it.”

“You play a lot of this.” A question disguised as a statement while Kaiba peers around a corner. He turns back and realises that in those few seconds he’s somehow managed to lose him, until Ghost Guy taps at his right shoulder.

“Well, you run KaibaCorp. You can’t tell me you don’t ever get the urge to go into a darkened room and shoot at people.” And proceeds to flash him a smile with far too many teeth.

  


* * *

  


1 5 : 3 5 p m

  


Yugi backs Atem up against a wall, levelling his blaster at his chest.

“Any last words, partner.” Yugi drawls with a slight accent. Luckily nobody in this room but him knows that he had a fervent desire to be a cowboy when he was seven, but he just can’t resist an opportunity like this.

Eyes closed, Atem squeezes reflexively at the trigger on his own blaster. There’s a noise. They both look down at Yugi’s vest.

Atem looks as distressed as if he had actually shot him. Yugi can’t help laughing at him. It makes Atem’s expression shift into a sheepish smile and he half shrugs. Yugi skips back a step, flicking his head as if to say ‘Come and chase me then’ and they run off through the maze.

But not for very long.

Bursting into the centre clearing, they skid to a halt as they find themselves in the middle of a standoff.

Kaiba immediately changes his aim to Yugi, Bakura stays on Tristan, Atem tries to quickly remember who his teammates are and points at Joey - who is pointing at Kaiba, Tristan at Atem, and Yugi trains his blaster at Bakura.

Silent and still, they wait for the noise of a shot being registered. But instead they hear a quite different one. A door quietly closing. Kaiba’s heart sinks as he’s suddenly aware that they’re grouped together like fish in a barrel. Then there’s a sound he hasn’t heard in about four years, but he knows as well as the sound of his own voice. Or the fire alarm.

A familiar demonic giggle.

  


* * *

  


1 5 : 38 p m 

  


There’s carnage from the moment that Kaiba breaks and sprints around the nearest corner. The sound of firing and shots landing from all directions, as everyone runs for cover - shooting opponents and teammates alike in an attempt to stop the continuous attacks on them. Tristan manages to trip over Joey in the chaos and wrenches his foot, and they spot Yugi and Atem rubbing identical spots on their foreheads where they must’ve smacked head-first into each other.

As the timer near the door runs out, everyone instinctively follows the sound of shooting. An implicit truce for the sake of curiosity.

They find Kaiba, gun disabled, pinned against the farthest wall; the only escape through Mokuba, who’s stood on a pile of tyres and thoroughly blocking him in.

It’s like that scene from The Lion King, except with lasers, and they’re all kind of rooting for Scar.

Mokuba shoots him just a second before the timer goes.

  


* * *

  


Tristan winces as he puts the cold cardboard cup against his ankle. He’s usually very good, but he supposes third isn’t bad (especially with Yugi admitting that his second place is entirely unfair), and Bakura always comes in first whenever he plays anyway.

They ignore the team victory - Mokuba was put in as red, and while he was clearly an equally opportunistic shooter according to his score card (surprisingly full considering he only had three and a half minutes of play), they decide that they’ll have to play again to know for sure.

Tristan flexes his foot. He’s not sure that he agrees with this. It can’t just be him that thinks this was a disaster.

“It’ll take another month.” Kaiba says, not looking up from his phone where he’s been intermittently drawing and typing between picking at Mokuba’s discarded burger toppings. 

“What will?” Choruses the rest of the table, apart from Mokuba, sat with a knowing smirk on his face while he sucks a strawberry milkshake.

Kaiba says nothing, but slides the phone across the table, clearly trying to suppress a smile as everyone exclaims over a vaguely sketched out Kaiba Land Laser Tag arena.

Okay then, maybe it is just him.

  



End file.
